Playing in Shuffle mode - 5.1

[Rob_S]

I like very much that shuffle mode now shows the tracks in the order they will be played. Big improvement!!! This appears to have replaced/combined with the previous option to "Randomize list" so simpler than before.

As a test, I loaded a large playlist into the main window, sorted by title. Shuffle mode is off.

Then I double-clicked one of the tracks near the top to begin playing it, and populate the now playing window.

Track begins to play, and I decide I would like to invoke shuffle mode. The tracks in now playing are sorted in random order - so far so good.

Now I cannot find the highlighted track which is playing, it has not moved to the top of the list. Also, sometimes not always - at this time the "Next track" button in the player window at the bottom becomes non functional.

- I think when I hit shuffle with an existing now playing, the currently playing track should move to #1, so all other tracks are below yet to be played.

Alternatively, one could argue any tracks above the playing track should remain above the currently playing track and all below only should shuffle - on the assumption all above are already played.

The above seems to work correctly if shuffle mode is on before I double-click a track in the main window, except it does not play the track I select, it just shuffles the list and plays whatever happens to come to the top.

- I think again it should place the double-clicked track which starts to play into the top position, and shuffle the rest.

[Ludek]

- I think when I hit shuffle with an existing now playing, the currently playing track should move to #1, so all other tracks are below yet to be played.

Alternatively, one could argue any tracks above the playing track should remain above the currently playing track and all below only should shuffle - on the assumption all above are already played.

The above seems to work correctly if shuffle mode is on before I double-click a track in the main window, except it does not play the track I select, it just shuffles the list and plays whatever happens to come to the top.

- I think again it should place the double-clicked track which starts to play into the top position, and shuffle the rest.

I am also seeing this as bug, re-opening https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view ... 988#c71562 and adding your suggestions there...

[Rob_S]

Very happy you were able to understand my descriptions as posted, as it is always a bit hard to explain these things.

Now if only we could have a way to save where we are at in playing any particular queue of tracks.

I realize it remembers as long as we don't play anything else, but if we do, its lost. Has this concept made it into an official feature request??

[Peke]

Hi,
I just lost 5k playlist I ordered carefully for past two weeks , by simply enabling shuffle (using hotkey) for few tracks and then disabling shuffle after few songs and closing MM5 to drive kids. When I started MM to continue listening adding add companion track with few others I already joined together, I found that all tracks in list got shuffled and that there is no way for me to revert back to original order.

Updated https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=18988

Shuffle ON, behave like Randomize List each time it is enabled irreversibly damaging order of Now Playing.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z0ynbmpi2h3iq ... 8.mp4?dl=0

In 2690 you can't do that.

[Rob_S]

I noticed the other day that there is a multi-level undo in the three-dot menu of now playing.

This of course appears to be lost upon close and re-open of the program.

Personally, I would not normally expect now playing to be a "permanent" ordered list, unless it is saved as a new playlist, or better yet as a queue with record of where it was at......

I play different stuff at different times, and each time now playing gets erased.

[Rob_S]

This being one of the major changes ie new features in V5.1, I would have expected more comments from users on this.

Unless nobody else has started testing 5.1 yet??

[Erwin Hanzl]

"Unless nobody else has started testing 5.1 yet??"

Why? Because we are tired of doing the developer's testing work.

==============================================================
"MediaMonkey for Windows 5.1 Alpha Testing is starting!
Unrea post by rusty » 17 Apr 2023, 17:06

We're looking forward to your feedback, .... and many of the changes have not yet been tested. There may be bugs in functionality, performance, and reliability that we're not aware of.

[rusty]

We're a small team with limited resources. So yes, it's true that we're happy to involve users who are interested in furthering the project by providing feedback on early pre-beta builds.

So like you pointed out, we try to be clear about the status of the builds we share: we tag them as 'alpha' and indicate when they've undergone limited testing. To my mind, that's a good thing: it allows people who aren't risk averse to test the software early, and people who are more risk averse to get involved in testing when the software is more mature.

-Rusty

p.s. that's also why we publicly share most of our internal discussions such as the evolving discussion about the shuffle implementation--so that users that are interested can get a better sense of what we're thinking and thus get involved in the discussion if they want to.

[Rob_S]

Well said, I figure providing input at an early stage allows me to have more influence than later on.

Given the number of MM enthusiasts out there, I would have expected more of them to be interested in this particular change.

[Rob_S]

Double click a track in main window in shuffle node still performs the old play now shuffled , effectively adding the track but playing something else.

I think the default should be to "play now normal" - ie insert the track into the shuffled queue below the current location and start playing it "Now"

Play next appears to work as expected ie inserts track below current location and actually play next.

[Rob_S]

Double-click in shuffle mode is now working as expected in latest version 2805.

This might be because before I had a setting under playback rules to "clear list and play selected and subsequent" With that option turned on, it still plays a random track when double-clicked.

Sadly - I am still not seeing any action in the bug and feature list on the subject of saved queues. Is there any hope for that???

It would be so useful to be able to play some other list of tracks than what is currently playing, and then go back to one of my previous lists and continue where I left off.

Again, please refer to android player musicolet for how this works.